> People generally value traditions, and specifically food traditions, highly. The author specifically discusses how, for example, the production of regional t

> People generally value traditions, and specifically food traditions, highly. The author specifically discusses how, for example, the production of regional traditional French cheese is, in fact, highly industrialised: "Meanwhile, to keep pace with gastronomic demand, farming relentlessly intensifies. In the famous cheesemaking regions of France, you will scarcely see a dairy cow. Instead, vast tracts are cultivated for maize. Passing tourists romantically assume it’s sweetcorn for human consumption – the French must eat a lot of sweetcorn! No, it will be turned into silage to feed the cattle stalled in the vast steel sheds – cow factories – that have sprung up from Brittany to Savoie, a business as brutal and industrial as any other. Milk is trucked across hundreds of kilometres, trade fairs market the cheese from Dubai to Shanghai."